🐈
» Support » Product Release Notes » Indian TDS Tax Withholding on Upwork Earnings
Page options

Indian TDS Tax Withholding on Upwork Earnings

lenaellis
Community Member

Starting October 1st, Upwork will begin withholding Tax Deducted at Source, TDS, from payments to freelancers and agencies located in India as part of a new tax law enforced by the Indian government.

 

As part of our continued efforts to remain compliant with tax laws in India, we are asking that our customers in India provide their Income Tax Identification number in the “Tax Info” section under “Settings”. For purposes of TDS withholding, the Indian government will accept either a Permanent Account Number (PAN) or an Aadhaar number. Please be sure to use the correct format for your PAN or Aadhaar number as defined by the Indian government:


  • PAN is a 10-digit alphanumeric entry, i.e., A A A A A # # # # A
    # = Numeric   A = Alphabetic 
  • Aadhaar is a 12-digit numeric entry


For those freelancers and agencies that have provided a PAN or an Aadhaar number:

We are required to withhold 0.75% of all your payments, starting with the first dollar you earn as of October 1, 2020, and forward it to the Indian government. The rate is scheduled to increase to 1% on April 1, 2021.

 

For those freelancers and agencies that have not provided a PAN or an Aadhaar number:

We will be required to withhold 5% of all your Upwork earnings and forward it to the Indian government. You will be able to claim a tax credit or refund from the Indian government should you pay more taxes than required. 



You will need to add a PAN or Aadhaar number in order to keep the withholding tax at .75% of your earnings.  Click here to Add Income Tax Identification.

 

To learn more about Indian TDS, click here

 

Let us know if you have any questions.



 

492 Comments
76681f54
Community Member
I haven't received Form 16A till now and the tax amount withholding is not seen in 26AS TRACES

When will Upwork issue form 16A or reflect in 26AS
76681f54
Community Member
I haven't received my Form 16 nor is my 26 AS showing the TDS deducted.

When will Upwork provide form 16A
sajeeth35
Community Member

Dear Upwork Team,

 Request for  Form 16A Document for E-filing in India.  I got  an email from Upwork on 12-Mar-2021  regarding  the Form 16a Document there is some Transfering issues, will be rectified in june 2021 month for 2020-2021 quarters and the updated files will be reflected in  Traces. 

 

When i pull out the  Form26as document from Traces, i could see some mismatch information. Request to Please check the amount  credited and Tax deducted details and send me the  updated form16a document for my e filing. Kindly do the needful.

 

Regards,

M.Sajeeth

 

 

g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member

Hi Sajeeth,

 

We truly appreciate your patience, as we recognize how critical it is for you to have necessary tax documents in a timely manner. As a result of COVID-19, there have been significant delays in processing the 16A forms needed, but we are working closely with the India Government to obtain these as soon as possible. You will receive an alert as soon as your documents are processed. Again, we appreciate your patience and understanding.

rohetgoel
Community Member

I don't understand what are you guys doing, it's just a simple return with very simple information, I don't why are you guys having such a hard time.

 

you have mentioned on URL https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360044709894-Indian-Tax-Deducted-at-Source-TDS-or-Withh...

Form 16A for October–December 2020 –– We expect to email the form to you in April, and your transaction details for that quarter should be visible in TRACES around the same time.

Form 16A for January–March 2021 –– It should arrive on schedule in May and you should be able to view details in TRACES in June"

 

We are unable to view tax credits for the period of Form 16A for October–December 2020, which was due in April, As stated by upwork. However, as of 17th May 2021, we haven't received any update from you guys. It's like Upwork is only worried about his commission and fees, they are least worried about the various freelancers working on their platform.

anshulrastogi
Community Member

Hi Upwork,

 

I would like to know that where is my withholding tax going? I'm paying it every week since Oct 2020 and it is nowhere recorded at government TRACES portal.

 

As per this article it says that Upwork will submit these taxes to Indian government and we can view the data in TRACES, but nothing is available on TRACES..!! 

 

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360044709894-Indian-Tax-Deducted-at-Source-TDS-or-Withh...

 

Now we Indians have to file our Income Taxes by July 31st (last date) for FY 2020-21 and no data from you guys is available in the TRACES..! 

 

This simply means that you have deducted false amount from us on the name of WHT Taxes. You haven't issued any Form 16A yet and no information available from your side. Your support executives  doesn't know much information about such cases..!

 

Kindly suggest when you are issuing Form 16A and filling up WHT tax data with Indian Government on Traces portal?

 

Thank you

Anshul

JoanneP
Moderator

Hi Anshul,

 

I can see that our team already assisted you with your concern. If you need further assistance, please feel free to update the ticket, and our team will be happy to assist you further. 

anshulrastogi
Community Member

Hi Joanne,

 

Yes I tried to find what's happening and where is Form 16A and withholding tax data on TRACES webiste. I can't find any such information updated from upwork. So I reached customer care and they also do not have any updates that when the information is available.

 

Now we are nearing to file our income taxes by the end of July month and need this tax deduction amount and form 16A. If it's not filled by Upwork, it simply means misleading deductions from upwork side and these deductions should be paid back.

 

Can you let me know when can I expect my form 16A and my WHT taxes data filled by Upwork on Traces website?

009ankit
Community Member

Hi,

 

Quite a lot of us here on Upwork fall below the tax bracket and the WHT (or rather TDS) Upwork deducts would be credited back to our bank accounts by the Indian Government in an ideal scenario. Since Upwork has not updated the TRACES for the Jan-Mar duration, nor has it provided a valid form 16A on their side, we would be unable to claim our money back from the government. Upwork needs to understand that we would be losing out on our hard-earned money! 

 

First, your tax team couldn't figure out what forms you were supposed to fill out, and I had to intervene and let you know that it was not the one. Now, when the tax deadline is approaching fast, your tax team hasn't still figured out how to file such simple tax information, and we are on the verge of losing our money! Are you sure you have hired a competent company?!

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Hi Rahish, Anshul, Ankit and others,

 

Upwork pays the withheld TDS monthly to the Indian government. However, the filing we do to report TDS collected for each taxpayer for January-March 2021 will be done prior to extended due date of 15 July, 2021.
Few things to note:
  • If you entered AADHAAR instead of PAN, currently India govt is not accepting AADHAAR information in the portal, so while we still apply reduced TDS rate if you provide PAN/AADHAAR, it would be be best to enter PAN if you want this to be reflected in TRACES.
  • Please ensure the PAN you enter matches the name on the account. If there is a mismatch, TRACES do not accept the information submitted by Upwork. We plan to roll out a name field next to PAN, to ensure we're collecting both PAN and the name associated with that PAN.
Lastly, if you would like to know how much Upwork deducted, you can download a csv file in the transaction history page, and filter by "WHT".